Category: Tools

New Office Visio Stencil – January 2015

The January version of the New Office Visio Stencil was recently made available to download.

Brief Description
These stencils contain more than 300 icons to help you create visual representations of Microsoft Office or Microsoft Office 365 deployments including Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, Microsoft Lync Server 2013, and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013. The zip file now includes both stencil sets from 2012 and 2014.

Overview
Creating visual representations of your Microsoft Office and Office 365 architectures, including Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync is a helpful way to communicate your deployment. These Visio stencils provide more than 300 icons — many depicting servers, server roles, services and applications — that you can use in architecture diagrams, charts, and posters. These icons are primarily centered around deployments of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, Microsoft Lync Server 2013, and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 as well as hybrid Office 365 deployments of aforementioned technologies.
The zip file now includes both stencil sets from 2012 and 2014.

Microsoft Message Analyzer v1.1

Microsoft recently updated Message Analyzer (the successor of Network Monitor) to version 1.1.

Brief Description
Message Analyzer enables you to capture, display, and analyze protocol messaging traffic; and to trace and assess system events and other messages from Windows components.

Overview
Microsoft Message Analyzer (v. 1.1) is the current versioned tool for capturing, displaying, and analyzing protocol messaging traffic and other system messages. Message Analyzer also enables you to import, aggregate, and analyze data from log and trace files. It is the successor to Microsoft Network Monitor 3.4 and Message Analyzer 1.0. Message Analyzer is a key component in the Protocol Engineering Framework (PEF) that was created by Microsoft for the improvement of protocol design, development, documentation, testing, and support. With Message Analyzer, you can choose to capture data live or load archived message collections from multiple data sources simultaneously.
Message Analyzer enables you to display trace, log, and other message data in numerous data viewer formats, including a default tree grid view and other selectable graphical views that employ grids, charts, and timeline visualizer components which provide high-level data summaries and other statistics. It also enables you to configure your own custom data viewers. In addition, Message Analyzer is not only an effective tool for troubleshooting network issues, but for testing and verifying protocol implementations as well.
Please also visit Message Analyzer Team Blog for continued updates and helpful information.

Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator v6.1

The Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator v6.1 was recently made available to download.

According to the Release Notes page, here’s the list of changes

Version 6.1:

  • Fixed operator mistake in calcNumActiveDBsSF formula
  • Fixed missed validation scenario where the calculator could recommend a copy count that could not be deployed on the custom disk architecture
  • Optimized remaining servers formula
  • Fixed an issue where single datacenter, multiple databases per volume architecture with lagged copies didn’t calculate the correct number of
    copies/volume
  • Fixed VirtCPUFactor reference
  • Various comment changes
  • Improved cell highlights for insufficient disk capacity on storage design tab
  • Added additional storage capacities – 1.2TB, 6TB and 8TB
  • Fixed database count validation logic to take into consideration dedicated lagged copy servers

To get the detailed instructions on how to use it, download Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator Readme.

To download the tool itself, click here.

Microsoft Exchange RPC Extractor 2.0

Microsoft Exchange RPC Extractor 2.0 was recently made available to download.

Overview
The Microsoft Exchange RPC Extractor (RPX) is a command-line tool that can parse network captures and interpret remote procedure calls made from a client to Microsoft Exchange Server. RPX uses the information provided in the Microsoft Exchange Server protocol documentation to parse RPCs, remote operations (ROPs), and the parameters for each ROP.

Exchange Load Generator 2013 v15.0.805.0

Exchange Load Generator 2013 v15.0.805.0 is now available to download.

Brief Description
Exchange Load Generator is a simulation tool to measure the impact of MAPI, OWA, ActiveSync, IMAP, POP and SMTP clients on Exchange servers.

Overview
Use Microsoft Exchange Load Generator 2013 (LoadGen) as a simulation tool to measure the impact of MAPI, OWA, ActiveSync, IMAP, POP and SMTP clients on Exchange 2013 servers. LoadGen allows you to test how a server running Exchange 2013 responds to e-mail loads. To simulate the delivery of these messaging requests, you run LoadGen tests on client computers. These tests send multiple messaging requests to the Exchange server, thereby causing a mail load. LoadGen is a useful tool for administrators who are sizing servers and validating a deployment plan. Specifically, LoadGen helps you determine if each of your servers can handle the load to which they are intended to carry. Another use for LoadGen is to help validate the overall solution.
This version is intended for Microsoft Exchange 2013 Servers only.
Important! LoadGen should be used only in laboratories that have no connection to the production environment. This tool should not be used in any way in a production environment or an environment that is mission critical or contains important information of any kind anywhere in the network.
The tool is provided as-is. At this time, there are no updates or patches planned for future release. No formal support is provided for the tool. Some minimal support may be provided by Microsoft but not all reported issues will be able to be addressed or resolved.

Calendar Checking Tool for Outlook v2.2

Microsoft recently updated Calendar Checking Tool for Outlook to version 2.2.

Brief Description
The Calendar Checking Tool for Outlook (CalCheck) is a program that checks the Microsoft Outlook Calendar and items for problems or for potential problems.

Overview
The Calendar Checking Tool for Outlook is a command-line program that checks Outlook Calendars for problems. To use this tool, the Outlook calendar must reside on a Microsoft Exchange Server. The tool does not work with IMAP, with POP3, or with other non-Exchange mail servers.
The tool opens an Outlook profile, opens the Outlook Calendar, and then checks several things such as permissions, free/busy publishing, and auto booking. Then, the tool checks each item in the calendar folder for problems that can cause items to seem to be missing or that might otherwise cause problems in the Calendar.

Exchange Server Jetstress 2013 Tool v15.0.775.8

The Microsoft Exchange Server Jetstress 2013 Tool was recently updated to version 15.0.775.8.

Brief Description
Simulate Exchange disk I/O load on a server to verify the performance and stability of your disk subsystem before putting your server into a production environment.

Overview
Use Jetstress to verify the performance and stability of a disk subsystem prior to putting an Exchange server into production. Jetstress helps verify disk performance by simulating Exchange disk Input/Output (I/O) load. Specifically, Jetstress simulates the Exchange database and log file loads produced by a specific number of users. You use Performance Monitor, Event Viewer, and ESEUTIL in conjunction with Jetstress to verify that your disk subsystem meets or exceeds the performance criteria you establish. After a successful completion of the Jetstress Disk Performance and Stress Tests in a non-production environment, you will have ensured that your Exchange disk subsystem is adequately sized (in terms of performance criteria you establish) for the user count and user profiles you have established. It is highly recommended that the Jetstress user read through the tool documentation before using the tool.

Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator v5.1

The long awaited Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator v5.1 has finally been released. Like its predecessor, the Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server Role Requirements Calculator, it was announced by Ross Smith IV at the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog.

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There are several new features introduced by this version. Like you probably noticed from the name, the tool is no longer a mailbox exclusive calculator, it now includes client access servers and transport sizing (as the transport role is now part of the mailbox role).

For full details and prescriptive guidance on how to use the tool, read the Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator Readme

Exchange 2013 Site Mailbox Directory Sync Support Scripts

Following last week’s post about Exchange 2007/2010 Public Folders Migration to O365 Scripts, Microsoft released recently another set of useful scripts: Microsoft Exchange 2013 Site Mailbox Directory Sync Support Scripts.

Brief Description
Site Mailbox Directory Sync Support Scripts enable synchronizing site mailbox objects from Office 365 cloud into on-premise Active Directory to support access for on-premise users.

Overview
Site Mailbox Directory Sync Support Scripts are used to support on-premise users accessing Office 365 site mailboxes. It pulls any changes to the site mailbox objects including property changes, permissions etc. from Office 365 and merges them into the on-premise Active Directory.

Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool 1.0

Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool (OffCAT) 1.0 was recently made available to download.

OffCAT version 1 provides scanning for the following Office programs (2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013):

  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word

Brief Description
The Office Configuration Analyzer Tool 1.0 (OffCAT ) provides a quick and easy method to analyze several Microsoft Office programs for common configurations that may cause problems. This can be very useful for busy Help Desk personnel when end-users call for help with Office programs or when you want to proactively identify possible issues.

Overview
The Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool (OffCAT) is a program that provides a detailed report of your installed Office programs. This report includes many parameters about your Office program configuration and highlights known problems found when OffCAT scans your computer. For any problems that are listed in the report, you are provided with a link to a public-facing article (usually a Microsoft Knowledge Base article) on the issue so you can read about possible fixes for the problem. If you are a Help Desk professional, you can also save the report to file so that the report can be viewed in the Office Configuration Analyzer Tool on another client where the tool is installed. The Office Configuration Analyzer Tool 1.0 also includes a command-line version that can be used to collect an OffCAT scan without user intervention.